Anne Frank Web Log
Blog of assorted current news and findings related to Anne and WWII Diaries
11 Nov 2011
Exhibit about Anne's Mother at Anne Frank House Museum
The Anne Frank House has a temporary exhibit about her mother. Part of their web site
is dedicated to this exhibit: Anne's
Mother. I found the navigation confusing: I kept discovering I
was going in circles. I feel Anne gave a better sense
of the person. Anne's perspective on her mother lacked dimension and
wasn't presented. We are left looking at photos and not much
that came directly from Edith Frank.
It's probably a symptom of women's
lives in that era. Woman's place was to be obedient and perform
unappreciated services: go to school, get married, keep house, cook,
change the diapers, and clean, clean, clean. There was not a lot of
chance to develop interests and opinions, which resulted in frustration
and unhappiness. (Watch or read
The Stepford Wives for a mockery of the 1970s version
of this role for women.)
Doesn't Edith Frank have a look like The Mona Lisa in this photo?
Maybe there was a secret unarticulated opinion about the order of her world.
At any rate, I've never seen this picture of Anne's mother before.
I'm familiar with the photos of the Frank family, (which
were mostly saved by Miep Gies' quick thinking the day of the raid), because
they're available online (Getty Images Archive,
last time I checked). There was not much new on the website about the exhibit.
Perhaps there are more photos and information in the exhibit itself,
which is ongoing until mid-March 2012, at the Anne Frank House Museum,
in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Thanks to my NL contact for telling me about this.
Happy 11-11-11!
24 Oct 2011
Book of Current Photos of Places in Anne's Life
There is a new book by a Dutch guy, Ronald Jansen, who hunted down Anne's past homes
(including Bergen-Belsen concentration camp), and took photos.
I do not have a copy of the book.
The amazon look inside feature only shows pictures of the homes in Germany.
The book is in English.
I wish I could say I could connect these places with places shown
in the known photos of Anne and her family, but a quick look only turned up
tanalizing similarities without key matching details.
The nearest I
found (in my quick look around) is
below. If this is the same place, why are there two basement windows
in the old photo, and no basement windows (on that side) in the other? Even the
one grated basement window (on the other side) in the current photo
is at a different height from the ground than the windows in the old photo.
This architectural point is
unlikely to ever change. I leave the matter to other sleuths.
29 Oct 2011
The author replied with the information that he did not find
any matches of Frank family photos to the location my mind seemed
to zero in on. He pointed out that the photo I show above could
have been taken elsewhere in the same neighborhood, but it
was not at their home address.
Thanks for writing!
18 Oct 2011
Sigh! Site Continued for Six Months
This site's hosting has been continued for six months to 15 April 2012. It
took six days' attempts and four calls to yahoo customer service
(the shortest was 25 minutes) to get the term changed (a one-time no-charge
switch their site was applicable, their software just wouldn't let it
happen) at last. I guess you get
what you pay for in hosting, as anywhere.
Please donate what you can to this web site. Given the number of visitors
this site gets, it should easily pay its own way via visitor donations.
It would be better for my sanity if there was 9+ months' of money saved.
Seven performances of a play about Anne will be at the Aloha Theatre
in Kainaliu in Hawaii from Saturday, October 8 through Saturday, October 22.
It sounds as if they put a lot of thought and effort into it and attracted
actors from all over. Seating is anticipated be booked quickly. One of
the performances (Oct 15) is pay what you can.
Thanks to my NL contact for telling me about this.
20 March 2011
Anne Frank House Exhibit about Anne's Sister, Margot
Through September 15th, the
Anne Frank House has a small exhibit
about Anne's big sister, Margot. They say the exhibit is
small, but even what they have online
is quite extensive.
You can see items regarding her correspondence school course in Latin
(this was while she was in hiding, under the name of one of the helpers).
There are extensive quotes from
one of her still-living classmates who also went into hiding but survived
(she also tells some about her own very interesting experiences). There
is a photo of the beautiful rowing medal Margot won when she was 14.
There is also the story of how the occupying Germans' rules forbade her
participation the following year, so her teammates refused to race at
all.
There is also a note to her friend. Margot wrote,
"Times change, people change, thoughts about good and evil change, about
true and false. But what always remains fast and steady is the affection
that your friends feel for you, those who always have your best interest
at heart." I wonder if Margot was quoting someone or was the author.
Perhaps we will never know.
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The Anne Frank House has a temporary exhibit about her mother. Part of their web site
is dedicated to this exhibit: Anne's
Mother. I found the navigation confusing: I kept discovering I
was going in circles. I feel Anne gave a better sense
of the person. Anne's perspective on her mother lacked dimension and
wasn't presented. We are left looking at photos and not much
that came directly from Edith Frank.
Through September 15th, the